The Pandora Chronicles
by StolenxKisses
Summary: This story explains what happens in between BL1 and BL2. What if Dahl never left Pandora, and there was still a convict population on the planet. Handsome Jack is off to his own tricks, and Lilith and Brick still haven't been found after the first big battle with Handsome Jack. The Crimson Raiders are in tatters and help is on the way.
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

Elizabeth packed her bag and whistled happily as she waved to her parents, telling them that she would write, as they looked on in a mix of dismay and relief. They assumed that "Gypsy" as she preferred to be called; would be back in no time flat, having got her wanderlust out of her system to become a respectable member of the family, to perhaps take over the family's business, Manajo Entertainment Company, the foremost Echo programming entertainment company on Dresden, her home planet.

Two days later Gypsy landed on the Pandoran sands, and walked off the space shuttle onto the tarmac towards the one remaining bus stop, a piece of steel haphazardly sticking out of the dirt at a 45 degree angle with "Bus Stahp" written in what she hoped was red paint. She didn't have long to wait before a ramshackle bus pulled up, to take her on her way to the nearest settlement.

"Get in, get in, I don't have all day, give me your pass, and find a place to sit and be quiet. Don't mind my driving, the roads a bit bumpy." A roly-poly man with an Eastern European accent laughed as he collected Gypsy's ticket, and opened up the baggage hold in the bottom of the bus for her stuff. His eyes popped open as he looked at the cage which held a rather ugly looking bird that looked like a cross between an eagle and a crow. "Nice bird, it would be good eating."

Gypsy scowled and thanked the man, while the bird squawked in indignation at the man's suggestion of it was food. The bus driver gently set the cage into the hold and shut the door, and walked up to the entrance of the bus. With a mighty laugh he yelled into the wilderness "LAST CALL TO BOARD THE PANDORAN EXPRESS!" and he echoed into the cliffs, with no reply.

"Well, best be off then."

Gypsy followed him onto the bus and walked down the aisle. The bus was empty, which she found as a relief. She wanted to relax. She raked her shoulder length brown hair and settled down into her seat, which creaked as she sat.

The old travel brochure she had picked up had mentioned that Pandora was as of 25 years ago a newly colonized planet with hardly any infrastructure to speak of, save for the fact that the military company Dahl had come looking for an alternative fuel source rumoured to be in the planet's crust named eridium, which they hoped would power their space vehicles instead of the old nuclear fission reactor engine cores. Uranium was quickly becoming a sparse resource.

Gypsy was drawn to the planet for another reason, one she cleverly "forgot" to mention to her parents. One of her friends whose parents were in the planet's military force, had access to more ECHOnet channels than she did at home and one day they were just cycling through when they came across a short blip that maybe lasted 20 seconds, in Morse code. Gypsy's friend translated the code for her, and it was some sort of a distress call. Gypsy's interest was piqued, and she took out all her savings and had promised to write her parents as soon as she was able.

Gypsy sat down next to the window of the bus, and with a nod, Marcus whistled and climbed up the stairs of the dust battered bus, and turned the ignition and the unmistakeable smell of diesel exhaust filled the air.

"And we are off! Welcome to Pandora!"

5 hours later:

Gypsy wiped her eyes and stretched her neck, as she was rather rudely woken up by the bus driver telling her it was her stop.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!" She yelled as she yawned, standing up and stretching making sure she didn't leave anything behind, grabbing her bag at the top of the rack, and ran up to the front of the bus.

"Driver, my birds in the baggage hold." He nodded and got out and took out the cage.

"Thank you for riding the Dirt Express, welcome to Fyrestone, enjoy your stay and try to stay alive, I ain't interested in picking up yer carcass!"

"I'll try not to ruin your day then, sir. Thanks a bunch!" Gypsy smirked and waved at the driver as he drove off, and took in her surroundings.

To Gypsy's left she could see the remains of a small building that presumably used to be a diner or truck stop of some sort. Bowls and broken cups littered the floor as she walked in. She saw an open fridge door, and with a sigh, she realized there was no food inside, only some ammunition.

"Interesting... This could come in handy..." She saw some lockers and cash boxes lay haphazardly around in the sand, some open and some closed, and in deciding that the diner was abandoned, she got busy with searching for whatever she could find. Curiously enough, she found $10 in two cash boxes lying on the floor, and 4 clips of ammo sitting on top of some papers inside one of the lockers along the wall.

She stuck the cash into her bra, and the ammunition into her pockets, and unfolded the papers to see if they were of any interest. One was a shipping notice from the Dahl Corporation detailing requisition orders of supplies, and the other was a recruitment poster for an organization called The Crimson Raiders. Gypsy noticed writing on the back, and her mouth dropped open.

To whoever reads this:

You're probably here to finish what we started. There isn't much to see as we had to leave in a hurry. Take whatever you see, you'll need it. Avoid going down the road unless you have a death wish. Don't be fooled. If you came to answer our call, then keep your wits about you, and make your way to Sanctuary, if it still exists... There may still be drinkable water around here somewhere...

-M

Her eyes glanced down to the end of the page where half of a signature was written, curiously ended by a wash of dried red ink... Or maybe it was blood. She stuffed the note into her shirt and continued on, gathering more ammo and cash.

As she left, she nearly tripped over a loose floorboard and caught herself before she sprawled onto her face. She pulled the floor board up and it broke with a crack, revealing a box in a little compartment.

Gypsy sat on the ground, and pulled the box into her lap, it sure was heavy! She opened the rusty lid with a squeak and sucked in her breath as she found a combat knife inside, with another note and some more bullets.

"Find the robot" was all it said.

Gypsy reasoned since so much ammunition was around, there must be guns available somewhere. She put the floorboard back in place as best she could and walked outside, noticing the sun was about to set.

Having cased out the inside of the building, she walked outside around the perimeter, and discovered an old weather beaten military footlocker with "DAHL CORP." spray painted on the side.

She opened the clasp on the footlocker and whistled to herself, finding some more ammunition and a Vladof bolt action sniper rifle. She slung it onto her right shoulder and cooed at Cutthroat. Now if she only knew how to shoot it.

Walking around to the front of the building again, to her left she could see a road that went east, and to her right, the road curved and presumably continued on to God knows where. Right in front of her beyond the road, she could see endless cliffs and sand stretching into the horizon, with windmills laying still in the Pandoran breeze. "That's odd. Wouldn't they be spinning?" Gypsy thought, and shrugged, and looked back up the road, noticing a fence haphazardly constructed out of rusted sheet metal and old parts.

Cutthroat squawked, bringing Gypsy's attention back to the present, and she knelt and opened the cage, letting Cutthroat climb up her arm to perch on her shoulder. "I guess you probably don't need your cage anymore, eh buddy?" Gypsy smiled and left the cage at the entrance.

She walked through the old gate that curiously was left ajar, and took care that the rusty metal didn't cut her as she squeezed through the gap. She saw a sign that said "Welcum too Fyrestone!" and shook her head at the spelling.

She explored the deserted town which kind of unnerved her. She wondered what the hell happened here. It looked like everyone had left in a hurry. All the numbered buildings were locked up tight. She tried a door and the knob was stuck shut.

Gypsy walked through the settlement for a while, acquainting herself with her new home and she found a place to sleep under a lean to starting a fire as the sun went down.


	2. Chapter 2: First Exploration

**A/N: I owe everyone an apology. I have not fully played BL1 or 2 or even the presequel so I am just going on logical possible plot formations. I've been told that I am not far off from the original plot, but I hope you enjoy regardless. Sorry if there are any spelling mistakes. If anyone wishes to beta this for me, please feel free to PM me.**

**Chapter 2: First Exploration**

The next morning, Gypsy was rudely woken up to the sound of gunshots in the distance. She scrambled up to the roof of the lean-to hoping it would hold her weight, and heard shouting and screaming by the main roadway. She couldn't see much in her current position so she ran as quietly as she could, remembering to bring her gun with her, and climbed up the lookout tower and lay down on the wooden slats, shushing Cutthroat.

From her improved vantage point, she could see a man wearing a top hat and ragged clothes sitting on some weird kind of animal, a cross between a porcupine and a Komodo dragon wielding two revolvers, in a gunfight with a group of unsavoury looking men. Gypsy watched in horror as a bullet sprayed past the man's shoulder and he fell backwards, flipping off the animals back as it reared up in anger and spit out a phlegm coloured ball of crap towards the bandit searing his face and he screamed and ran away.

"Dammit Pup, that hurt! Be more careful will ya!?" The well dressed man screamed and aimed at them as the rest of the bandits advanced on his position out on the main roadway.

Gypsy's attention went back to her rifle. he sat up and quickly assessed the gun in front of her. She slid the bolt back, and took out the box of ammunition she had found the day prior, and took a bullet and slid it in the chamber, hoping she was doing it the right. She slid the bolt forward and down, locking the bullet in place, and looked through the scope and pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened. She had forgotten to take the safety off. She found a switch on the side of the rifle, and slid it to the opposite position it was in. She aimed again, and pulled the trigger.

Cyrus was thoroughly ticked off. All he wanted to accomplish today was find some more supplies so he could get to New Haven and have a nice relaxing day shooting rakk out of the sky for easy eating, except nothing ever was that simple, was it?

He had been minding his own business, and was making great progress until he came to Fyrestone. He passed the diner and rode along, sitting on his pet skag's back until a midget bandit spotted him and blew his cover to the rest of the group with its stupid maniacal laughter.

Cyrus yelled out angrily as a bandit's bullet shot past him and grazed his left bicep. His pet skag, affectionately named Pup, defensively reared up on his hind legs, causing Cyrus to fall backwards and somersault onto his knees, his one arm tucked into his side, the other one wielding one of his twin revolvers, unsteadily aiming as his anger get the best of him.

"Dammit Pup the hell you do that for?" Cyrus said as he watched the skag advance on the bandit who had just shot his owner, spit up a huge ball of corrosive saliva right into the Bandit's face. The bandit screamed in pain and ran away crying into the desert

He sighed and glanced down to look at his wound. Eh, it was just a flesh wound, though it hurt like hell and would probably leave a bruise. The bullet had frayed a nice hole in his jacket, marring the pinstripe pattern with a crimson bloom of blood on the fabric.

Cyrus looked up with interest as Pup screamed in anger, and swore as a midget Psycho appeared, running full tilt towards him wielding a bunch of mini throwing axes, ready to strike.

"Crap." was all he had time to say as he lifted his arms with his twin revolvers ready to fire, named "Tweedledee and Tweedledum". He pulled the trigger, except he had run out of ammo and he didn't exactly have time to reload 12 bullets into two guns.

It was then he heard a resounding boom that came from somewhere close, and the Psycho screamed and fell to the ground in a mist of red, shot in the leg. Cyrus unsheathed his katana from his back ready to do the Psycho the honour of death, but a shriek made him curiously look to his right towards the abandoned settlement of Fyrestone, where he saw a bird coming right for him. It looked to be a cross between a falcon and a vulture, and just as mean.

"Pup STAY BACK!" he said as he reflexively shielded his face from the birds talons, pausing as nothing happened as the bird landed on the Psycho and dispatched him with a bite of its beak, and began to chow down. He heard a scream, more human in nature, and a girl ran out into the roadway shouting.

"Cutthroat, NO!" Cyrus watched as the girl ran out towards the guy on the road, her gun held up close, ready to shoot from her hip if need be. Cyrus still had his katana drawn and as he began to raise it to sheathe it she yelled.

"Don't even think about it, I'M NOT AFRAID TO SHOOT THIS THING!" the girl yelled in a panicked tone.

Cyrus face of horror quickly changed into one of laughter as he regarded a girl who looked to be about his age running towards him with her gun held in the wrong position to shoot. Glancing at Pup, he saw that his skag had decided to join a rather ravenous falcon in its meal, eating the scraps that Cutthroat disregarded.

He smiled at the girl and chuckled as he lay his katana on the ground in front of him and smiled, holding up his hands, palms forward.

"I can see that, thanks. Don't shoot me pretty lady, I'm all out of ammo. My name's Cyrus, by the way.", he said, getting to his feet and taking off his top hat to reveal a messy head of sandy blonde hair.

Gypsy slung her rifle onto her shoulder, as she nodded and wiped some sweat off her brow and ran her fingers through her auburn chin length hair, and exhaled slowly, and walked up to him and held out her hand.

"Gypsy, nice to meet you Cyrus. Who were those guys, and what exactly is that?" She said pointing to the skag curiously, and both of them started walking back to the inside of Fyrestone.

"Those were the local riff raff that call the Arid Badlands home. Thanks for helping me get rid of them, it seems there is a never ending supply. This here is my pet skag named Pup, hes a good skag, not like the ones across the road."

Gypsy nodded, and started to walk, motioning Cyrus to follow.

"Come back to my camp, we need to get your arm looked after."

"We can just go to Dr. Zed's Medical Practice ... there's a chance he may have left it unlocked." Cyrus said, pointing to the shack. "Luckily for me, I came prepared. He winked and held out a lock pick, opening the door with a creak he stepped inside, and opened door, so they could see.

"And here we are, this is the old medical practice of Dr. Zed. Back before this place got cleared out by bandits, it was a thriving settlement for the Dahl Corporation. They came here about 20 years or so I heard to settle the planet. Unfortunately, wherever the hell they came from wasn't a very nice place, so it seems, as they hired convict labour to do their dirty work for them, and the convicts ended up staging a revolt. Dahl gave up and pulled out, leaving them to rot on Pandora.

I've heard that they came back to try exploring again, and they've had some serious additions to their firepower to not have a repeat performance like last time.|" Cyrus rummaged around looking for medical supplies.

"Speaking of which, where did you come from? It's not every day you see a woman randomly shooting bandits in Fyrestone, much less traveling alone."

Gypsy looked up from rooting around in a desk and smiled.

"I was looking around on the unofficial news channels back on my home planet, when I heard a long range news broadcast about a group looking for recruits. Back home there was lots of talk over what Dahl was trying to do, the major channels never shut up about it. Turns out someone hijacked the channel and started a distress call in morse code, mentioning something about the Crimson Raiders, have you heard of them?"

"Of course i have, everyone on Pandora has. They're practically heroes, or shit disturbers depending on who you talk to. 'Course, no ones heard much about them in 6 months or so." Cyrus sighed and winced as he pulled off his suit jacket.

"Ah- here we go Cyrus, I now have everything I need for your arm." She pulled out some gauze and her water canteen, and some whiskey she had found in a filing cabinet.

"Let's have a look at this arm..." Gypsy waved Cyrus to an old dirty chair and rolled up his sleeve to examine his cut gently. It didn't look too bad, but it might be different in the morning. Gently, she cleaned up the cut and wiped some whiskey on it, causing Cyrus' to suck air in through his teeth. She quickly wrapped up his arm and patted his other shoulder.

"Why's no one heard of them for 6 months or so, Cyrus? Whats been going on?" Gypsy's brow furrowed and she began to feel a sense of dread. Maybe she arrived too late.

"Hyperion's been trying to edge out competition. Anything could have happened. You don't look so good, is something wrong?"

"I need to show you something I found." Gypsy stammered quickly and laid out the two notes that she had found on the old table covered in dry blood stains for him to see.

Cyrus whistled low, as he read the notes. "Yep, looks like whoever this M person is had a little bit of a problem and had to make a little bit of a quick exit. How nice of him to warn you of the bandit camp down the road, even if you were a little late. The Crimson Raiders are seen as heroes to the general public here. They seem to be the only ones who are willing to stand up to the local government here, aka Hyperion's control of the planet.

Gypsy nodded her head. and sat on the table, across from Cyrus. "Tell me, why are you here all alone?"

"I ticked off the bandits down the road. I stole something back that they took from me, at least now I have my money back, I can actually do something with myself instead of screwing around in the sand. I was planning on going hunting for some food and leather, except they found me first. Now that I'm shipshape thanks for your help by the way, do you want to come along? We can look for more supplies and find this robot that note keeps talking about. "

Cyrus looked around and jumped off the table and walked towards a closed door in the back of the hut, and jimmied the door open. He walked inside and coughed as his feet blew up a cloud of dust. In the darkness he could make out some unopened chests and a rubber wheel.

"Hey Gypsy, I found something interesting. Come have a look!" Cyrus walked further inside and saw a metal rectangle, yellow coloured with a stripe of white around the middle of it, and saw that the rubber wheel that was attached to the bottom.

"Well I'll be! Gypsy, its a Claptrap!" Cyrus blew off the dust on the robot's eye and wiped off the rest of the dust wires that protruded from the robot's "head".

Gypsy walked over and watched as Cyrus carried out the rectangular robot and set it on the table. He opened up the front panel of the robot's chest and reconnected the wires to the mainframe of the robot's power board and closed the latch, then set the robot on his back on the ground. Flipping on on the power switch, he waited, holding his breath. The robot came to life and tested his limbs and wheel, as Gypsy and Cyrus moved back in surprise.

"Welcome to Fyrestone! I am CL4P-TP, you may call me by my locally designated name, 'Claptrap'. Before continuing, please accept this ECHO communication device and heads-up display provided free of charge by the Dahl corporation! How may I be of assistance?

"Someone told us to look for you and turn you back on. Do you know who turned you off?" Gypsy asked curiously.

"Many thanks, Vault Hunters, I appreciate it! Running memory check, one moment..." The robot paused and spun around energetically.

"Ah, yes. Memory check shows that my last known entry to my RAM was on 33-13-2454. I have nothing available after that date? Is today that 34th day of the month?"

Cyrus whistled and shook his head. "Unbelievable. that was 6 months ago, Claptrap."

"Very well then, Vault Hunter, thank you for turning me back on! Now if you excuse me, I need to run some security protocols and fix the Bounty Board. I need to update my video surveillance of Fyrestone. If you need me, don't hesitate to find me." Claptrap said and wheeled out of the hut to begin his perimeter check.

"I'll give you the grand tour of the area." Cyrus jumped up and led her through the back way of Fyrestone with Cutthroat and Pup following in tow.

Meanwhile close by...

A man sat bored at his hastily made camp, watching his pet falcon named Talon pick at the skags beneath it as it lazily flew taunting its prey before it swooped down for the kill.

He looked to be about 40-45 years old, strong boned and muscular, despite his slightly lanky build. Salt and pepper dreadlocks cascaded down the middle of his back, tied with a red bandana. A mask covered the top half of his face, and he wore green goggles over his eyes.

Scowling, he smoked of his cigarette, looking at his watch to see how much longer he had to wait until nightfall. Three whole damn hours. Well, at least he could some kill some rakk , and sell it in town if need be. Rakk leather always carried a high return price.

He was tired of waiting, seems that was all he ever did nowadays. He waited for the correct time to strike, and it would be worth it though, if he had to wait the rest of his life. They may have won the first round, but he was patient enough to prepare himself for success. There would be no third round.

Mordecai sipped his beer, and looked at his remaining stash. 2 full bottles of alcohol, he might be able to make it last. He sighed and got to his feet and stretched, rolling the knots out of his shoulders, as Talon called out to him.

He snapped to attention and sank down to the ground on the cliff face, and scoured the countryside for movement.

Two young'uns sitting on a SKAG that was galloping down the road, coming from Fyrestone of all places? He looked behind them and could see no one following them in hot pursuit, so he surmised they could be headed to either the Fast Travel Station or Scooter's Catch-a-Ride, and he was going to find out.

Mordecai whistled for Talon to come, and he followed their direction with the rifle scope, and then began to load up his stuff. He would drive down the hill and parallel to the road, giving them a head start to see where they were going.

After seeing nothing but sand, skags, and the sun for months on end, this was going to be very interesting indeed. "Good hunting" he thought to himself with a smile.


End file.
